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Israel identifies 2 Hamas activists as main suspects in alleged West Bank kidnapping

Israel identifies two well-known Hamas operatives in the West Bank as the central suspects in the recent disappearance of three Israeli teenagers.

Israel's Shin Bet security service on Thursday identified Marwan Qawasmeh, left, and Amer Abu Aisheh as the central suspects in the recent disappearance of three Israeli teenagers. (Shin Bet / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

By Josef FedermanMohammed DaraghmehThe Associated Press

Thu., June 26, 2014

JERUSALEM—Israel on Thursday identified two well-known Hamas operatives in the West Bank as the central suspects in the recent disappearance of three Israeli teenagers, in the first sign of progress in a frantic two-week search for the missing youths.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said the two men have been missing since the teenagers disappeared, and that a large manhunt is underway.

In a statement, Israel’s Shin Bet security service identified the men as Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisheh. It said both men are activists from the Hamas militant group in the West Bank city of Hebron, near where the youths disappeared on June 12.

Israel has accused Hamas of kidnapping the three teens, who disappeared as they were hitchhiking home. But until Thursday, it had provided no evidence to support the claim. It said both Qawasmeh and Abu Aisha had served time in Israeli prisons.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who publicly condemned the kidnapping in a high-profile Arab gathering in Saudi Arabia, to end a unity government he formed with the backing of Hamas earlier this month.

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“I now expect President Abbas, who said important things in Saudi Arabia, to stand by those words (and) to break his pact with the Hamas terrorist organization that kidnaps children and calls for the destruction of Israel,” he said.

Netanyahu has made similar calls throughout the crisis, saying Abbas cannot claim to be seeking peace while also having an alliance a group committed to Israel’s destruction. Hamas, which Israel and the West consider a terrorist group, has no formal role in the government, and Abbas has said the cabinet remains committed to his policies.

Following the disappearance of the teens, Israel launched its broadest ground operation in the West Bank in nearly a decade, rounding up nearly 400 Palestinians, most of them Hamas activists. The search for the teens — Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship — has become an obsession in Israel, with intensive media coverage and prayer vigils.

Hamas officials in Hebron confirmed the two suspects were members, and said Israeli troops have targeted the men’s homes since the beginning of the operation.

Abu Aisheh’s father, Omar, said he last saw his son at a wedding party on June 12 before he disappeared later that night. “I don’t know where he is,” he said, asking whether Israel might have arrested him.

A relative of Qawasmeh declined to comment, fearing Israeli retribution.

While Abbas has refused Israeli calls to break up his alliance with Hamas, he has instructed his security forces to continue a controversial policy of security co-ordination with the Israelis.

A senior Palestinian intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the two suspects are believed to be hiding and that Palestinian security forces were also searching for them.

He said the fact that the two men have been missing since the kidnapping is “clear evidence they have links with the abduction.”

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